Following the European Research Council competition for Consolidator Grants (2014), New Europe College became the Host Institution of such a grant. The project title is Luxury, Fashion and Social statuS in Early Modern South-Eastern Europe and its Principal Investigator is Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, researcher at New Europe College and at the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History in Bucharest. The project aims to trace the role luxury played in the modernisation process in South-Eastern Europe, taking into account the specific features of the region and how South-Eastern European peoples, and their Byzantine and Ottoman heritage are viewed through the stereotype of “Balkanism”. The project’s findings will help towards a better knowledge of changes in European society in its transition to modernity, and of similarities and differences between the various regions of Europe.